The goal of this paper is to discuss several methods of data collection for interlanguage pragmaticsudstudies. The paper was motivated by the process of data collection for the project “The role of explicitudinstruction in developing pragmatic competence in learning English and German as foreign languages”udcarried out at Goce Delcev University, Stip, Republic of Macedonia. Data for the project were collectedudby Discourse completion tasks (DCTs) and role plays, supplemented by verbal reports. DCTs and roleudplays are considered the most common means for data collection in interlanguage pragmatics. Theudadvantages of these instruments are that different variables can be controlled and that a considerableudamount of data can be easily collected. However, their validity and reliability have often beenudinvestigated, evaluated and compared to naturalistic data.udIn this paper we examine the similarities and differences between the data collected through DCTsudand role plays. In particular, we focus on the speech act of complaining. The research questions thatudwe pose are as follows:ud1 How is the learner speech act production in DCT responses different from role plays?ud2 What are the differences due to?ud3 How can we collect naturalistic data for interlanguage pragmatics?udIn our paper we first review some studies on data collection instruments in interlanguage pragmatics.udThen we describe our instruments, compare the results obtained by them and discuss the benefits ofudeach instrument. In the end we explore some possibilities for collecting naturalistic data, such as useudof language corpora and technology, naturalistic observation in class, inclusion of native speakers,udand so on.udKeywords: Interlanguage pragmatics, complaints, DCT, role play, naturalistic data.
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